This ebook is the inaugural issue of the Journal of Place Management and Development. The journal has been launched to further our understanding of places – it is the official journal of the Institute of Place Management which exists to support those involved in the important task of making places better. This ebook sets out to collect definitions and perspectives about place management and includes members of the Editorial Advisory Board offering their expert opinions and reflections on the current state of global place management, its development and marketing. Articles consider how downtown or town centre managers can evaluate where their work fits in the scope of possible activities that they could undertake and questions whether the resources or experience available to the initiative are a good match for the activities they are doing; for those engaged in BIDs or other formal partnerships, the issue provides much of the needed background for a strategic review of the partnership. In other articles, the issue addresses the challenges of reclaiming customers via a retailer-led TCM scheme in Italy, providing valuable insights of relevance to place practitioners, and a leading researcher looks at the rapid expansion of Dubai as a case study in strategic destination branding.